San Bernardino County Sheriff reflects on Dorner standoff

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon on Tuesday gave his first interview since the deadly Feb. 12 standoff between disgruntled former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner and sheriff's deputies in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Sitting in his office at Sheriff's headquarters in downtown San Bernardino, McMahon, who had been sworn in as sheriff less than two months before Dorner engaged deputies in the deadly gun battle in Seven Oaks, reflected on the magnitude of the event, the impact it had on his department and the law enforcement community in general, and his department's handling of the situation.

"This type of an event is tragic, and no law enforcement leader ever wants to be in that position - where you lose an officer and one gets seriously injured in a gun battle," McMahon said. "It's tragic. It's terrible and I hope I'm never in that position again. "

Dorner, who unbeknownst to deputies barricaded himself inside a vacant cabin on Glass Road in Seven Oaks, ambushed deputies who had just happened to have rendezvoused in the street outside the cabin to formulate a game plan on where they were going to search, McMahon said.

"There was no information to suggest he was there, the truck was not visible," McMahon said. "They get out of their cars, they see some tire tracks in the fresh snow, and within seconds they start taking gunfire from the cabin. Our guys are hit real quick. "

Deputies Jeremiah MacKay and Alex Collins were the first hit. MacKay died at the scene. Collins, MacKay's partner, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his face, wrist and leg.

"It sounded like a war zone. There was gunfire like crazy," McMahon said.

As Dorner continued firing from inside the cabin, deputies scrambled to clear the injured deputies from the road and get them to safe ground.

"There's some heroic efforts with our guys trying to rescue our injured guys and trying to get them out of there. Then the SWAT guys and all the other law enforcement officers got there and set up a perimeter," McMahon said.

McMahon said Collins recently underwent surgery on his leg, and his doctor is very optimistic about Collins' recovery.

"He's in great spirits and making an incredible recovery. He's looking forward to coming back to work and we're looking forward to having him back," McMahon said.

McMahon came under fire from the news media for a SWAT team's use of pyrotechnic tear gas, inserted into the cabin during the standoff, which set the cabin afire. Suspicions arose as to whether authorities intended to burn the cabin down in order to flush out Dorner, who is believed to have taken his own life, with a single gunshot to the head, shortly after the fire ignited inside the cabin.

"I'll continue to stand by my statement that we did not intentionally burn that cabin down," McMahon said. "We did introduce pyrotechnic tear gas as the next level of force to try and get him to give up, but we did not intentionally burn that cabin. "

Suspicions about the SWAT team's methods arose when one deputy, who McMahon said was not part of the SWAT team, was heard over the police scanner shouting, "Burn the (expletive) down!" A SWAT commander was also heard saying, "We're going to go ahead with the plan "" we're going to go ahead with the burn. "

As to the SWAT commander's comment, McMahon said that was police terminology for using pyrotechnic tear gas, and the commander did not mean they were going to intentionally burn the cabin

down. The fact that the cabin caught fire was incidental.

As to the non-SWAT deputy's comment, McMahon acknowledged it was inappropriate, and if he finds out who made the comment he will deal with it appropriately.

"But understand that these folks, these officers, were just involved in probably one of the most significant gun battles in the history of law enforcement, at least in California, if not the nation. They were taking rounds. Two officers are down. Emotions are running high," McMahon said. "Certainly, what I heard is not what we encourage and certainly isn't something we condone "" using that kind of language and making those types of comments. "

For the most part, McMahon disregarded the media's criticisms, including one by East Coast-based investigative journalist Max Blumenthal, who said during an interview that the Sheriff's Department intentionally set fire to the cabin and engaged in an "extrajudicial execution" of Dorner.

McMahon said the actions of his department's tactical team were by the book, and that Dorner was given plenty of verbal commands via a public address system to surrender with his hands in the air, which went unheeded.

The trail of victims and firearms Dorner left behind during law enforcement's pursuit of him was more than enough to warrant the actions taken to subdue Dorner, McMahon said, adding that guns were found in Dorner's scorched pickup in Big Bear Lake, the maroon Nissan he stole the day of the standoff and even in the snow outside the cabin where the standoff occurred.

Dorner, who launched a killing spree to send a message about corruption at the Los Angeles Police Department following what he said was his wrongful termination, is also suspected of killing the daughter of a retired LAPD captain, her fiance, and a Riverside police officer.

The standoff drew a throng of police officers from agencies across Southern California "" Los Angeles, Irvine, the CHP, the Forest Service and Cal Fire to name a few. They all came to assist in any way they could. Many of the responding units were on standby at San Bernardino International Airport, where they remained.

By the time many of the backup law enforcement agencies arrived in the valley below, Dorner had already been cornered in the cabin on the mountain and the sheriff's SWAT team had already established a perimeter, McMahon said.

He said that was one of his biggest challenges: coordinating with all the agencies who came to assist.

"Although it's a big advantage when everybody starts coming up to help, managing the response from other law enforcement agencies that are truly trying to do the right thing, who want to come up and help, managing those responding units sometimes becomes a little difficult," McMahon said.

McMahon said he was highly impressed with the men and women of his department during the nearly weeklong search for Dorner, which saw searchers trudging terrain in blizzard conditions.

"The men and women of this department went up there every day and did absolutely their best trying to find this guy and keep anybody else from being hurt," said McMahon. "They didn't give up in that weather. They kept searching. They didn't complain. The work ethic and commitment of the members of this department was just extraordinary. "

And he was overwhelmed by the support extended to his agency during the search and subsequent standoff.

"When you look at the support, not only from inside the department but from the communities we serve as well as the state and the country, sometimes you lose sight of how much support there is out there for law enforcement," McMahon said. "And in an event like this you truly see how much support there is "" the e-mails, the phone calls, the letters, the donations for the injured deputies' families. It's just overwhelming the support that's out there in the community. "

Meanwhile, an extensive investigation into the standoff remains ongoing. A report will ultimately be submitted to the District Attorney's Office for review, which will ultimately release its findings to the public, McMahon said.

He said the standoff was a learning experience for all involved and the broader law enforcement community in general.

"As I thought about this, if it was not our department involved in this event we would be watching this event on TV, looking at what they were doing and asking ourselves, "If this occurred in our county, would we be prepared to deal with it and how would we deal with it?' McMahon said. "So this is a learning event for law enforcement across the country. This is a very significant event.

"Hopefully this type of event doesn't occur again, or if it does it's a long time from now. But clearly, everybody can learn something from an event like this, and I believe we'll learn some things from this event. Not that we did anything wrong, but maybe there's something we could have done better, and when you experience an event like this it's always an opportunity to learn."